Regen

by Cassie Greutman

  She gave up on the van, came over and wrapped her arms around my shoulders tipping me forward. I could feel her ragged breathing against my back. Rebecca snapped the head of the arrow off the shaft without warning. I shrieked and fell back into Nina.

  Nina leaned me back down against her, holding me hard. “Are you sure about this? There’s a lot going on here I don’t understand, but that doesn’t really make me want to do this.”

  I nodded, gripping her calf for a little contact. She didn’t look convinced.

  “Ready?” Rebecca asked.

  I nodded again, not able to speak, grateful she’d stopped asking questions and was just holding me.

  “Keep her down,” Rebecca told Nina. Gripping the feathered shaft with both hands, she threw all her weight into pulling and it popped free, releasing another gush of blood. I wailed, unable to hold it in. Jaden’s grip on my hand slipped because of the blood, but he adjusted and tightened his hold. I barely felt the extra pressure as pain rippled through my body.

  Rebecca tossed the shaft to the ground and covered the wound with both hands.

  Nina gave me a squeeze and moved a sweaty strand of hair out of my face. “Remind me why we aren’t calling an ambulance?” she forced through gritted teeth, moving to take over pressure for Rebecca.

  “She knows what she’s doing,” Rebecca said, moving back. At least one adult trusted me.

  I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the healing happen. I held my breath as the inside layers fused. Jaden squeezed my hand and I opened my eyes long enough to give him a brief smile. Finally the last piece of skin knit into place. “Okay, you can let go now,” I forced out. She didn’t. I opened my eyes a crack. “Nina, please, let go.” I dropped Jaden’s hand and picked up hers, weakly pushing them off my abdomen.

  “Looks good,” Jaden said, leaning over and staring at my abdomen.

  “Stop looking.” I glared at him. He lifted his hands and backed off.

  Nina took the torn piece of my shirt and used the cleanest piece of it to wipe at my stomach. “It’s gone. Where did it go?”

  “It’s healed, let’s get out of here.”

  “Healed?” Her voice was going even higher. “Just like that?”

  “Yep.” I tried to sit up and lights flashed.

  “Whoa, slow down,” Jaden said. “Even a superhealing body needs a bit of time to replace all that blood volume. You’re going to have to take it easy for a few minutes.”

  “I know how this works,” I snapped. “Just get back in the van.” Years of trying to hide something like this made a person uncomfortable with the fact that it was out in the open. Now that the pain was finally subsiding, I could fully appreciate the mess I was about to find myself in.

  “No use getting in until we change the tire,” Jaden said.

  “You’re sure you’re okay, Trisha?” Rebecca asked, squeezing me on the shoulder. That must have been where Jaden got the gesture. I nodded and she stood, dusting herself off and wiping at a spot of blood on her shirt. “I’m going to check on the girls.”

  Nina pulled me into a tight hug. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again. You saved my life, but I’m serious, never again.” Her glare was enough to make me flinch. Which was worse, the arrow or this? I didn’t answer her order, not wanting to bind myself to some unbreakable agreement by accident. She didn’t seem to notice, just continued. “What is going on? What happened to make you heal like that?”

  I closed my eyes and gulped a little, nauseous.

  “Are you okay?” Nina asked, hovering. “It is healed, right, all the way?”

  “It’s healed,” I gritted out. “I’m just a little tired now.”

  She bent over and checked my abdomen again, then felt my forehead like maybe I had a fever. Moms.

  “We are talking about this, as soon as we get safe.”

  “Deal.” I tried to smile at her, but everything still felt so wrong inside. Even though I’d healed, my body was still protesting being impaled by a foreign object.

  Nina sat back but kept one arm around my shoulder. I sighed and leaned into her, exhausted. “We can’t stay,” I managed to get out, closing my eyes, just for a second. “Something else will come. And the Trooper is on his way.”

  I opened my eyes just in time to see Nina’s flash of horror as she glanced at my clothes and then back at my face. “That could be bad.” She banged on the side of the van. “Rebecca, do you have a spare for this? We need to get out of here.”

  “Yes, in the back.”

  Nina stood, practically having to peel me off her. I tried to sit up straighter, but I was so tired. That arrow must have hit some vital stuff. She leaned over and gingerly picked up the tire iron from where she’d dropped it. Apparently satisfied there wasn’t anything left over from the goblin she’d killed, she gripped it tighter and started for the back of the van.

  “You stay here. I got it. You might be able to use a sword and take an arrow, but I at least know how to change a tire.”

  I obeyed. I scooted back against the van and leaned on it so I didn’t have to lay in the half frozen dirt by the road. It was cold! I just hadn’t noticed until now. After talking to the girls for a minute, Rebecca came back around the van and helped Nina pull the spare out.

  “That was pretty amazing,” Jaden’s voice made my eyes pop open. He moved over and sat down beside me. “You have quite the reflexes.”

  “It has something to do with the healing.” I closed my eyes again.

  “Impressive no matter what the reason. You must really love your mom to do that for her.”

  “Foster mom,” I automatically corrected.

  “That just makes it an even bigger deal. There’s more to you than I thought.”

  I squinted at him. “No, there’s not. Just wait until I turn you in, then you’ll know exactly what I am.”

  He cocked an eyebrow at me. “We’ll see.”

  Now what was that supposed to mean? I sighed and closed my eyes again. It didn’t matter right now. We just sat there for a moment, listening to Nina grunt as she tried to get the stuff around to change the flat. The thought crossed my mind that I really should go help her, but the woozy feeling that about knocked me over every time I moved changed my mind.

  “Do you hear something?” Jaden asked after a minute. Now that he mentioned it, yeah, I did. Sirens. Or maybe a siren.

  Lights flashed in the distance. “Someone’s coming,” I called to whoever was listening.

  “Shoot, probably the State Patrol.” Nina dropped the tire she’d been trying to wrestle out of position, jogged over and grabbed my arm. “Get changed, quick, before they get here.” She frantically started kicking at the blood splatter on the ground. Fast thinker. Kind of made me wonder how she’d gotten so good at covering things up.

  But she was right. I needed to get moving. I groaned. I didn’t want to do anything quick. She left me and a second later my suitcase hit the asphalt. She tossed a hoodie at me, dug around for a moment before coming up with a pair of jeans. She hurried over and tugged at my t-shirt. I glared at Jaden, who looked away, then let Nina help me pull the old shirt over my head and get the new one on. I could have left the t-shirt under the hoodie, but that was just plain disgusting.

  She looked down at herself. She had almost as much of my blood on her as I’d had. After grabbing my suitcase she went around back for a second, then showed up wearing a sweatshirt, her coat gone. Kind of cold for that, but it was less suspicious than blood everywhere. Ha, what wasn’t? She came over to help me finish getting changed.

  The cruiser idled up beside the van and a huge man squeezed out from behind the wheel just as we finished getting me changed. “Is everyone okay?” He looked around at the motorcycles littering the highway. “What happened to the bikers?”

  “They’re all gone, thanks for the help,” Nina snapped.

  “Where did they go? Their bikes are here.”

  “A van
picked them up,” Lucy said when no one else answered. I hadn’t seen her get out of our van. She was pale. Shoot, even with Rebecca checking on them I’d kind of forgotten about her and Jaime. How was Jaime taking this whole thing?

  The trooper flipped open a notepad. “Description?”

  “Big and white?”

  “Did you get a plate number?”

  “Um, no, it just happened so fast.”

  The trooper looked around again. “I’m going to go call this in, you’re sure you’re all okay? There’s a squad on the way, I called it in when I pulled up. It’s at least ten minutes out.”

  Nina looked at me and jerked her head toward something. Oh, my sword, sticking out from under the van. Rebecca backed up to it and gave it a small kick on the hilt. I winced, hoping it didn’t get scratched or something. That was probably the only sword I was ever going to get.

  “We’re all fine, an ambulance won’t be necessary. We just need to get this tire changed and we’ll be on our way,” Rebecca said.

  “Would you like to try to start it, ma’am? That way I know if you need a truck to haul you in? It’s pretty beat up, I’d just like to know that it’s still running.”

  Rebecca leaned down like she was going to help me move. I shook my head no. The trooper might find that suspicious. I did have a clean shirt on, but there was a lot of dried blood under that shirt. I pushed off the van and stood. Not too bad. The world was a little loopy, but manageable.

  “What’s wrong with her?” the trooper asked Nina. “She looks like she’s about to faint.”

  “Just overwhelmed, I guess.”

  I moved away from the van and leaned against a big rock.

  Rebecca turned the key and the van started, but it sounded bad. After a second, it smelled even worse than it sounded.

  “Let me get a truck out here to start hauling these bikes away and I’ll get that tire changed for you.” He left for his car.

  “I don’t want to wait for him to get back, let’s get this thing changed,” Rebecca said. “Something else could catch up with us. I want to get to Fort Wayne as soon as possible.” She headed around the van to get stuff out of the trunk. Jaden moved along behind her, her unseen protector. He was a good son. And a good brother. He seemed like a good guy in general.

  “You okay?” Nina asked, breaking me away from that thought.

  I nodded and bent down, pulling my sword out from under the van and sheathing it. I’d have to clean it later, without the chance of some cop seeing it.

  “You scared me, kid.” Nina put her arm around my shoulders. Nausea filled my stomach that had nothing to do with the physical part of taking the arrow. I had to lean against the boulder behind me when the world started to spin. She didn’t think I was a monster. I hadn’t realized until that moment how worried I’d been that she would. She loved me anyway. I was almost relieved enough to cry right there in front of her. Almost.

  She shook me. “I was serious though, never again, understood?” She paused for a second. I didn’t answer. “I’m not going to ask you to tell me what’s going on right now with the chance the trooper will come over, but you better be ready to spill when we get alone.” She gave me that look and I knew for a fact that there was no getting out of this one. And really, there was no reason to hold out now. She already knew the what, now she just needed to know the why.

  “What are the chances of something else like this popping up before we make it to Fort Wayne? And why is Rebecca so sure they’ll be safe there?”

  I was about to answer when the trooper walked our way. He went to the back of the van and took the spare from Rebecca, who was puffing a little trying to pull it out of the trunk.

  “While I change this, let’s go over what happened again,” The guy said, dropping the tire next to the van and pulling off his gloves.

  I groaned. Talk about a long day. And the guy should have been a little more honest about this ‘talk.’ He grilled us all long after he was done with the tire.

  I expected Rebecca to want me to go say something, but Nina steered me away, patting her abdomen. No doubt they didn’t want me around the trooper.

  Jaden followed me to the other side of the van. I guess he thought it was better to be with the only person he could communicate with than to be with the moms. The pain of the wound was finally gone, but I needed to eat. Like, now.

  I could hear some of what was going on with the trooper. Nina, trying to tell the story without the weird stuff. I had to hand it to her, she was pretty good at avoiding the truth when she wanted to be. Who would have thought. She should have been fae.

  I closed my eyes and leaned back against the van. The world spun a little. My stomach was starting to grind into itself. It wasn’t as bad as when I woke up in the woods, but it was pretty bad. If I didn’t get something to eat soon, I was going to be sick.

  “Is something wrong?” Jaden asked. He’d been quiet until now, no doubt worried about me answering him out loud and making the trooper think I was crazy. I tried to shake my head no, but couldn’t. Okay, that must be a lie.

  “Are you okay, Trish?” Nina asked me quietly, scaring me. When had she come over here? I was too out of it, it wasn’t safe. And what, did I have the fact that I wasn’t feeling well plastered all over my face?

  I managed a nod. “Just hungry.”

  Nina’s eyes went wide. “That’s why you eat so much. I thought it was just because you’re a teenager.”

  “Yep, that’s why. And things like today make it a lot worse.”

  “I can see that. Rebecca is almost finished up. I’ll go find out where the closest place to eat is.”

  Managing a small nod, I closed my eyes again and slid down to lean against the van.

  It seemed like forever before she was back. “The closest place is ten minutes. Can you wait that long?”

  “Sure,” I said, trying to smile. Even Nina couldn’t whip food out of nothing.

  “It’s okay,” Jaden said. “I’m sure the girls have something in the van. They can’t go anywhere without a snack.” He actually sounded concerned. I frowned. Why did he care? We’d just met yesterday. And I’d made it abundantly clear what I planned to do to him. He’d be better off if I died.

  “You know, I might have something…” Nina opened the van door and grabbed her purse. After digging around for a moment, she pulled out a roll of mints. She gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, this is as good as it gets.”

  “Thanks. Better than nothing.” I popped two in my mouth and sucked hard. There was a little jolt like my body was anticipating the calories, then nothing when it figured it out. I smiled at Nina and nodded, trying to make her feel better. She smiled back, looking relieved.

  Jaden grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. Startled, I almost pulled it away, then thought better of it. He probably needed some physical contact. It had to be hard to be able to see your family but not touch them. I looked over at Nina, who of course had no idea Jaden was even there. She must have felt my stare, because she glanced my way, gave me a strained smile, and patted me on the shoulder.

  The trooper came around the van, notebook in hand. “I just need to make sure all your contact information is correct in case we need to get a hold of you about what happened today. Then you can head on out. I don’t think you should probably be driving tonight, after all that excitement. Maybe you can find a hotel.”

  Nina made a noncommittal noise and gave him her cell number and our home address.

  He nodded as it wrote it down. “Sorry you had to go through this. I promise you it isn’t normal in this neck of the woods. Good luck on the rest of your trip.” He looked us over and again and then headed for his patrol car.

  Yes, now we could get out of here. Nina, Rebecca and I piled into the van, Nina in the driver’s seat. Jaime hurtled herself at Rebecca, sobbing. Poor kid. Lucy looked freaked out too, but apparently didn’t want to talk in front of Nina and me, because she stayed quie
t. That was just fine.

  After a moment of consoling, Rebecca asked me to switch her seats, so I moved up front with Nina and she moved in back to sit with Jaime. I checked that Jaden was in the car and we were off.

  It’s amazing how agonizingly slow ten minutes can take to go by. Finally there started to be some small businesses, and then a Wendy’s. Beautiful, wonderful, Wendy’s.

  We piled out of the van, Jaden still not talking. Why was he being so quiet? He might be a ghost, but he didn’t have to act like one.

  “Nina?” I asked. They were taking too long with the girls.

  “Wait one second, I’ll go with you.”

  I waited a second. “Nina. Please.”

  “Rebecca, you got this?” Nina asked.

  “Yes, go.”

  Nina threaded her arm through mine and we started toward the place that was about to save my life. My stomach roared with impatience. We powerwalked across the driveway. The smell of hot food hit me in the gut, making me even more ravenous. I wouldn’t have thought that was possible a second ago.

  We walked in and got hit by a blast of heat. Some unhappy girl a little older than me slouched behind the counter. “What can I make for you today?” she asked.

  “Five burgers and a salad please,” Nina said.

  I kicked her. She looked at me. “What? I ordered you two.”

  “Two isn’t going to cut it,” I whispered.

  “Make that seven burgers.”

  An eternity after Nina paid, the girl behind the counter handed me the bag of burgers. I had one out in a second, half of it gone the next.

  Nina looked worried for a second, then laughed. “It’s been a long day,” she told the girl.

  The girl raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything, just handed Nina her salad.

  “Thanks,” Nina told her and we headed out.

  The first burger was history before we even made it off the concrete. I was working on the second by the time we reached everyone else. Nina passed out the food.

  I moved over to stand by Jaden. He gave me a small smile. “Feeling better?”

  “Yes, just needed to eat.” I proved my statement by talking another big bite, holding the hamburger in one hand and digging the next one out with the other.